Valerie Scott is a sex worker and executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC). SPOC's primary goal is the decriminalization of sex work in Canada. Scott is an appellant in SPOC's constitutional challenge to the communicating, bawdy house and living on the avails of prostitution laws, currently under way at the Ontario Superior Court. Scott’s talk will discuss the many reasons why SPOC advocates for decriminalization in the interests of protecting sex workers’ rights in Canada.

Over the past 23 years, Valerie Scott has spoken to numerous parliamentary committees, universities, community organizations and media outlets about the need for decriminalization. She has published articles in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and Toronto Sun newspapers.